2010

Howdy kids. It’s been a while since W+TWP last posted, and for that I am sorry. During the time off I got to thinking about why I started the blog in the first place. I wanted it to be a place where kids could download the latest and greatest in Electronic Music. Really what ended up happening was me trolling other blogs who were on top of their shit and regurgitating it to you lovely folks, and that is no way to operate. So once again, I am sorry. So then the next question arose : How do I make it better?

Given that I am now touring full time as a DJ, I will be in contact with other DJ’s, bands and producers out on the road, and what could be more current than those folks? So the idea of Wyllys and The World Party 2.0 is to get interviews with these people I tour with to get their take on Electronic Music and how they are pushing the genre forward, as well as links to their music and upcoming tour dates.

Sound good? Well I took my most recent gig to re-light the fire here at W+TWP with Chris Are from Long Island, NY. Chris, myself, The Durians, Sonic Spank, and The Egg took over Burlington’s Club Metronome last Sunday and we all had a fucking blast. In short, everyone showed up and played their ass off and we all got drunk. Good times in the Queen City. Chris Are got my attention. His sounds were meticulously crafted and his beats were interesting. It had a Dub Step feel, but none of the sonic qualities that are assoaciated with that genre. It was very psychedelic yet structured. We were sharing a booth together and he was very knowledgable about music in general so I called him a few days later to pick his brain for Hidden Track.

Wyllys: Give us a brief history of Chris Are as a musician….

Chris Are: Well, I started making beats around 2002, but I started playing drums at age 4. I started making beats on an old Yamaha keyboard and then moved the MPC 2000. My current studio rig consists of Pro Tools running on a Mac, some random synthesizers, the Abelton ATC 40 controller, a new Korg Kaos Pad, and, of course, the MPC 2000. I do all my sampling off a turntable and have a HUGE vinyl collection. The Hip Hop of the early 90’s influenced my beats heavily and that’s the rhythm pattern I use the most these days.

READ ON for more of our chat with Chris Are…

Yeah, Cover Wars is a bit different this week. They can’t all be jamband-friendly accessible tunes, sometimes we need to freak out some squares. So that’s why you probably won’t know many – or possibly any – of this week’s contestants as they tackle this Genesis tune from the epic 1974 album The Lamb Lies Down Broadway.

The Contestants:

Leading off this week is this rendition from Fragile using female vocals, a piano and some cheesy electric bass sounds, it works though. Source: smile

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/fragilecarpet.mp3]

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

Bustle In Your Hedgerow gigs have been few and far between this year, but the downtime didn’t prevent Joe Russo, Dave Dreiwitz, Marco Benevento and Scott Metzger from blowing minds

The Unheard Music, a song, as we set the trash on fire and watch outside the door, men come up the pavement under the marquee—there’s laughing inside; we’re locked outside the public eye…

We float along, often from one misfortune to the next, but, somehow, one envisions a time when our space will be tranquil and free. Until then, the road appears endless—vague things rise and fall on a mysterious path. Venturing forth, one ponders the hidden meaning of it all, and watches from afar, neither touching the earth, or tasting the sky.

And yet…there is something quite compelling about the search for something else, something greater than oneself, something hidden and mysterious, strange and surreal. In our sights, in this week’s edition of Hidden Flick, we explore the clash between man and nature, profane and sacred, chaos and calm, in The Wind Will Carry Us.

The film was written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami, and features the lush and glorious mountain terrain of a Kurdish village, which is visited by a Tehran film crew intent in documenting the unique burial ceremony of a dying 100-year old woman. The metropolitan needs of the city dwellers hit the patient life of the small community, and the two opposing forces (Western Corruption meets Eastern Spirituality?) slowly find a place in the middle to meet. Or so one is led to ponder with an ethereal sense of hope—can modern man truly understand the poetic so-called banalities of the simple life? Does one reach the point of no return in that unexpected quest to return from whence we came? READ ON for more on this week’s flick…

You can always count on Warren Haynes’ benefit concert to be a highlight of December and from the looks of this year’s lineup, the 22nd Annual Christmas Jam should be